Today, credit bureau reports do not include information about an entity's loan and/or lease obligations and payment history. Loans and/or leases of interest can be, for example, real property loans and/or leases and/or personal property loans and/or leases. While commercial lending companies can currently determine the number of loans and/or leases a customer has with that lender and/or lessor by using their own lending systems, a commercial lending company cannot determine the total number of loans and/or leases a customer has, including loans and/or leases with other lenders and/or lessors and their respective payment histories. Therefore, lenders and/or lessors perform manual checks by gathering D&B reports and checking the applicants' payment history with other commercial lending companies through a manual phone call. This method for checking payment history information is inefficient because it is extremely time consuming and can diminish the confidentiality of the potential loan and/or lease agreement. In addition, because this method is so time consuming, it is also rather ineffective because lenders and/or lessors do not want to take the time to properly check loan and/or lease references. This method is undesirable since it results in a number of inefficiencies including high costs to process applications, lost transactions since many borrowers are denied credit due to lack of information, and high operating costs to maintain staff to make manual telephone calls. There is reluctance among lenders and/or lessors to check credit references with other lenders and/or lessors for fear of opening the deal up to competition. Accordingly, credit decisions are made many times based upon incomplete information, which can result in one of two undesirable scenarios: either an unrecoverable loan is granted, or an applicant who could ultimately satisfy the payment schedule is denied a loan and/or lease. Lenders and/or lessors have traditionally entered into loans and/or leases despite this lack of information because lenders and/or lessors would rather accept less creditworthy deals than make no deals in an effort to maintain volume and profitability.
Despite the aforementioned problem, lenders and/or lessors have continued using the manual method for lack of a better alternative and because lenders and/or lessors currently have no facility for obtaining a comprehensive view of the applicant's leases and loans with other lenders.
As used herein, “lender” includes a lessor, as well as a party more traditionally thought of as a lender, e.g., a loaner of money. As used herein, “lease” or “loan” are used interchangeably.